Automatic Door III

NOVEMBER 24, 2022 / MAD HATTER

Even though he was here earlier, where did he go? Theitoilet? Gibberish words are everywhere but you can’t see them unless you copy them

Even if that were the case, it wasikind of carelessness… to leave the store unoccupied no matter how late at night it was with no customers coming in. What if a customer suddenly appeared?

I supposed he was not expecting any customers.

I was the soleione in the empty store. Even so, I wasn’t busy. The hands of the clock have already passed 2:30 a.m., and most of the miscellaneous tasks have been settled with the instructions I received.

I wondered if it would go on like this until morning. By the time the sun rose, how manyimore customersiwould show up? If this kept up, I could probably memorize the number of customers, their faces, and the items they bought.

…Aoyama hadn’t come back yet…

All of a sudden, I felt a gaze on meiand raised my head. It wasithe glass part of the magazine corner.

“Aoyama?”

That was what I thought, yet beyond the glass was pitch-dark, andinot a soul, not even Aoyama, wasistanding there. Oh, so it was my imagination…

Things like this happened often. Without paying muchiattention to it, I returned my gaze to the store.

At that time―

The automatic door opened with aimundane chime.

Here it came…!

“Welcome―”

I said reflexively and directed myself toward the automatic door. A customer arrived after a long time.

Although I wasiprepared to greet them with my all-out business smile, I froze theifollowing moment with my body turned toward the door.

No… what was this? ufwenmicbvnujef

Nobody was there. grergterteherrnh

The customer that was supposed to be there. greghgwegrefwgre

The customer that was supposed to walk in through theiautomatic door. They were nowhere to be seen.

The automatic door closed as if nothing had occurred. Even the chime stopped ringing. rfebhiwqjoehb

…What…?

Squinting, I starediat the door, but found nothing out of the ordinary, simply an automatic door. No, the windiwas not blowing that fierce today, nor was there anything that looked like trash near the door.

Something was wrong. When I tilted my head and thought so, the dooriopened by itself again.

“…”

Terrifying.

I didn’t thinkiso.

At the time, I merely found itiodd.

After confirming that the door closed again, I left the counter and stood in front of the automatic door. By standing in front of the automatic door, theisensor was activated and the door opened as a matter of course. Onlyimy head stuck out of the door and I looked around. Needless to say, nobody was there… This wasn’t a prank, right?

If this was not a prank, only one thing can be conceivable.

“Malfunctioning huh…”

The sensor must be out of order.

The words of the manager and Aoyama recurred in my mind, but I was skeptical to assume that a mysterious phenomenon was the handiwork of a specter, even though I couldn’tisee it.

Had it been a legless woman who stepped in, I probably would have believed in the existence of specter.

However, when a door opened by itself in the absence of anything else, chances were that the door was malfunctioning or something similar.

What the hell…? I heaved a brief sigh as I looked outside.

Those who had resigned up to thisipoint had simply quit out of fear, mistaking the automatic door malfunction for the handiwork of a specter huh.

How pathetic, how pitiful. I wasn’t spooked at all.

The lack of pedestrian traffic and the fact thatithe area was surrounded by a sea of trees and a well-known suicide site, all of which compounded the apprehension and terror, led to the illusionithat they had witnessed something bizarre.

Unfortunately, I was not a deeply devout person. Stories without visible evidence were my ultimate abhorrence.

I mean, someone in the shadows was definitelyihaving a good time with those kinds of stories. Thinking about it, wouldn’t it be extremely ludicrous to be swept along with the rest of the crowd that fussed and fretted about the horrors of such things? If this was the extent of it, a week would be nothing to worry about.

As I was about to return to the counter, the door thatihad nearly closed opened again, and this time it remained open even after the chime had finished ringing.

“…”

I stared at that withiicy eyes.

When I was with Aoyama, this didn’tihappen, right?

Beyond my gaze, the door remained open instead of beingiclosed, constantlyisending the warm air from outside into the store.

When a person was left standing in front of a door alone, this sameiphenomenon could arise.

No, no, it couldn’t be…

No way…

Back at theicounter, I spent several minutes observing the bizarre automatic door.

As the automatic door didn’t seem to be closing, I got fed up and left the counter once more to examine the door.

Leaving the door open would allow insects to enterithe store. I couldn’t tolerate it any longer. It’s probably just the rail or a piece of trash stuck in there somewhere, I figured.

Nevertheless, I crouched down and inspected the rail from top to bottom and found not a single piece of trash caught in it.

Did it really break down? Ah, aboutithis. What should I do with this door left open? fgyewijevuygihudojiqwefuvghjiqdsh

At any rate, when Aoyama came, I would consult with him… I scratched theiback of my head and pondered so.